Research Candidates: Your Own Way

Updated July 16, 2026

You don’t need anyone to tell you how to vote to vote well. Your November 3 ballot runs from statewide offices down to local races most guides never mention. This page shows you what’s on it, how to find and judge voting guides, and how to research any candidate on your own terms.

Georgia Matters is nonpartisan. We don’t support or oppose any candidate, party, or position. Everything here is meant to help you show up informed and decide for yourself.

A candidate being interviewed by a reporter holding a microphone

What’s on Your November Ballot

Your November 3 ballot depends on where you live, but it can be surprisingly long. Most Georgia voters will see a mix of statewide, legislative, judicial, and local races all at once.

What’s on Your Ballot

General Election · November 3, 2026

Federal

U.S. Senate
U.S. House

Statewide

Governor
Lieutenant Governor
Attorney General
Secretary of State
Insurance & Labor Commissioners
State School Superintendent
Public Service Commissioner

Legislative & Judicial

Georgia General Assembly seats
Local circuit judges

Local & Ballot Questions

Sheriff & District Attorney
Probate & Superior Court
School board & county commission
3 state constitutional amendments

Your ballot may include some or all of these races, depending on where you live.

Georgia judicial races are nonpartisan. This November, that means local judicial races such as superior court judges, which appear regardless of your party history. Georgia’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals seats were decided in the May election, so they are not on this ballot. Local judges rarely get attention but shape your community for years, so make time to research them.

Enter your address on the My Voter Page and you’ll see every race and candidate specific to your precinct, before you ever set foot in a polling place.

Find Voting Guides

Voting guides come from civic nonprofits, local media, advocacy groups, political parties, and single-issue organizations. All can be useful. Knowing where a guide comes from, and why it exists, is what lets you use it well. Here are the sources Georgia voters use most, and what to expect from each.

Local newspapers & TV

Georgia outlets often publish candidate Q&As before elections. Local reporters know these races best. Search your outlet’s name plus “voter guide 2026.”

Civic & nonpartisan groups

Some civic groups publish questionnaires where every candidate answers the same questions. Equal treatment of all candidates is a good trust signal.

Advocacy & issue groups

Business groups, faith communities, unions, and single-issue advocates publish openly values-driven guides. Fine to use, just know the lens they bring.

Candidate websites

A candidate’s own site tells you what they want you to know. Treat it as a primary source, not a neutral one. Check positions, background, and endorsements.

Political parties

The state parties publish materials about their candidates. Explicitly partisan, but useful for seeing how a candidate is positioned within their own party.

People you trust

Neighbors, colleagues, and faith leaders who follow local politics are often the most useful source, especially for local races with little media coverage.

Evaluate Voting Guides

Knowing where a guide comes from and what it’s trying to do tells you how much weight to give it. Here’s what to look for.

Watch Out For

Signs a guide is selling, not informing

Endorsements mixed with information

If a guide recommends candidates, it’s advocacy, not education. Not automatically bad, but know what you’re reading.

Loaded or emotional language

Words like “radical,” “dangerous,” or “heroic” signal persuasion, not facts.

No clear publisher or funding

If a guide won’t say who made it or why, you can’t assess its angle.

Selective candidate coverage

If one candidate’s answers appear but another’s don’t, the guide may be skewing your view.

No original sources cited

Claims about a candidate’s positions should link to public records so you can verify them.

Good Signs

Marks of a guide you can trust

✓

Equal treatment of all candidates

Every candidate gets the same questions, the same space, and the same format.

✓

Sourced, verifiable claims

Links to candidate sites, official records, or public statements you can check yourself.

✓

Clear publisher and method

Explains who made it, what their mission is, and how they gathered information.

✓

Explains what offices do

Puts races in context: who does this job, and why it affects your daily life.

✓

Points to official tools

Trustworthy guides send you to mvp.sos.ga.gov for registration and ballot info.

Use Guides Wisely

1
Start with your sample ballot, not a guide.
Use My Voter Page first to see exactly who and what is on your ballot. Many voters are surprised by how many races appear, especially local and judicial ones.
2
Check multiple sources for contested races.
No single guide tells the whole story. Cross-reference local news, candidate websites, and any civic guides you trust.
3
Pay special attention to judicial races.
Local judicial races appear on your November ballot regardless of party, but get little media attention. Make a point to research them.
4
Don’t overlook down-ballot races.
Sheriff, District Attorney, school board, and county commission races shape public safety and education more directly than most statewide offices.
5
Endorsement guides are one opinion, not a verdict.
Guides from civic groups, newspapers, or advocacy organizations are useful context. Read them as an informed perspective, not a final answer.
6
Verify before forwarding.
If a guide summarizes a candidate’s position, check the candidate’s own site to confirm context, especially for quotes or claims that seem surprising.

Remember: voting guides are tools, not instructions. The best ones help you understand who is running, what the office does, and what’s at stake, so you can decide what fits your own values. The judgment is always yours.

How to Evaluate a Candidate Yourself

A person researching candidates at a laptop

You don’t need a guide to research a candidate. Here’s a framework for doing it yourself, whether it’s a Governor’s race or a county commission seat. Tap any item to expand.

Understand what the office actually does

Before evaluating a candidate, know the job. A Governor signs or vetoes legislation, commands the National Guard, and appoints agency heads. A District Attorney decides which cases to prosecute. A school board sets curriculum and hires the superintendent.

A candidate’s positions only matter in the context of the power they’d actually have. If you’re unsure what an office does, search “[office name] Georgia responsibilities” or visit georgia.gov for official descriptions.

Check their stated positions

Start with the candidate’s own website. What issues do they lead with? What do they say they’ll do? Then look for:

Position papers or issue pages on their site
Responses to questionnaires from local media or civic groups
Statements at debates or forums, via video or transcripts
Their social media, for unfiltered positions and tone

Review their record if they hold office

For incumbents or candidates who’ve held prior office, the record is the most reliable predictor of future behavior. Look for:

Voting record — Georgia legislators’ votes are public. Search the Georgia General Assembly site for roll-call votes by name
Sponsored legislation — which bills they introduced or co-sponsored shows priorities, not just talking points
Committee assignments — which committees they served on, and the work they did there
Attendance — did they show up and vote, or miss sessions?
Then vs. now — has a position shifted? If so, have they explained why?

Look at who’s funding them

Campaign finance filings are public record in Georgia. Who’s donating can tell you as much as what a candidate says. Look up contributions at:

Georgia Ethics Commission — ethics.ga.gov, for state and local candidates
Federal Election Commission — fec.gov, for U.S. House and Senate candidates

Look at both the size of donations and where they come from. Large contributions from one industry or interest group can hint at where a candidate’s priorities lie.

Check who’s endorsing them

Endorsements from organizations, elected officials, and community leaders signal who a candidate is aligned with. Find them on the candidate’s site and consider whether the endorsing groups reflect values you share. Endorsements from groups on both sides of an issue can reveal how a candidate is positioning themselves.

For judicial candidates, use a different standard

Judges don’t campaign on policy positions, and they shouldn’t. For judicial races, look for:

Years and type of legal experience (criminal, civil, appellate)
Whether they’ve been a prosecutor, public defender, or private attorney, each brings a different perspective to the bench
Any disciplinary history with the State Bar of Georgia at gabar.org
Endorsements from legal and civic organizations familiar with their work

Judicial races are nonpartisan, but the candidates still have backgrounds and judicial philosophies worth understanding.

A note on neutrality: Georgia Matters doesn’t endorse candidates or parties. Any tools linked here are provided because they help you research, not because we favor any candidate or outcome. The judgment is always yours.

The Official Starting Point

Before any guide or research, start here. Your personalized sample ballot is the only tool that shows exactly what’s on your precinct’s ballot: every race, every candidate, nothing added or left out.

Official

Georgia My Voter Page — Secretary of State

See your exact ballot, confirm your polling place, check registration, and track an absentee ballot. All specific to your address.

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Ready to see what’s on your ballot?

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